Fat-Free Halloween: Sounds Awful, Tastes Great

My friends seem to abandon health and nutrition on certain holidays. Kay, for instance, is a stalwart follower of low-fat healthy cooking 364 days of the year, with Halloween being the exception. Kay has three children, you see, who complain loudly about anything but traditional trick-or-treat goodies.

“When Halloween draws near, the competition for my kids’ sweet tooth gets fierce. But after eating all that junk,” she says with a sigh, “ ‘hyperactive’ is too mild a word for them. This year I’d like to try something new.”

Cooler fall days mean baking to me, so it was no hardship to lure Kay into the kitchen one Saturday afternoon with the promise that I would help her make treats her kids would love, maybe even enough to pass around at school.

My road to successful low-fat, kid-pleasing treats wasn’t all smooth. Baking used to mean mixing together a bag of chocolate chips, a container of condensed milk and a package of graham crackers in my grandmother’s kitchen. Homemade brownies with these ultra-simple (and pretty unhealthy) ingredients were my pride and joy at age 6. Many years and plenty of experimentation later, I have finally come up with treats that taste as good but are easier on my health.

When we put on our aprons that Saturday morning, I first explained some basics to Kay. Making treats without butter, egg yolks, whole milk, sugar and white flour is not as simple as it sounds. Whittling a recipe down from traditional high-fat ingredients requires learning new rules.

Take sugar, for example. Cookies and bars are mostly sweetener, and in traditional recipes, sugar bonds the dough by crystallizing as it bakes. Crystallized sugar is what makes cookies crisp and crunchy. If you’ve already tried an alternative sweetener, such as honey, maple syrup or even fruit juice concentrate, you may have discovered some difference. Maybe soggy cookies, unpleasantly doughy insides? A common result.

How about fat? In baking, fat includes dairy products, egg yolks and oils. Low-fat cooking means very little of the first, no egg yolks at all and much reduced amounts of oil. Sweets are often 50% or more fat--just scan a traditional cookie recipe and weigh the ratio of butter or oil to flour. Fat makes baked goods moist and creamy-tasting; it adds lightness and lift. When you take out the fat, you get dense, heavier products.

What’s the solution? Two simple ingredients that solve both fat and sugar blues are fruit purees and egg whites. Unsweetened applesauce, pureed dates or prune puree are viscous enough to hold moisture in a cookie or muffin dough, and you can substitute an equal amount for up to half the oil in most baked goods--with little flavor or texture loss. In fact, wise manufacturers are selling these simple purees as “baker’s helpers.” Egg whites, softly whipped and folded into a batter, add practically no fat and a lot of rising power.

Kay was thoroughly pleased with the recipes we tried--and, most important, so were her kids. So, if the aroma of freshly baked treats lures you, don’t feel you have to give up the fun with the fat. Try a few of these recipes this Halloween and enjoy the delight on your kid’s face when she or he tells you everyone ate all the homemade treats you placed in the lunch box.

* Carroll is the author of the “No Cholesterol (No Kidding!) Cookbook” (Rodale Press).

ORANGE-DATE BARS

1 cup chopped pitted dates

2 cups apple juice

1/2 cup orange juice

3 tablespoons grated orange peel

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Orange juice and date puree make these cookies chewy and sweet without additional sugar.

Puree dates, 1/2 cup apple juice, orange juice, orange peel and vanilla in food processor or blender.

Grind oats to powder in clean, dry blender about 1 minute. Stir in flour and cinnamon. Moisten oat mixture with remaining 1 1/2 cups apple juice to form stiff dough.

Press dough into bottom of lightly oiled 8-inch-square baking pan. Spread date puree evenly on top. Bake at 350 degrees until crust is firm, about 35 minutes. Cool completely. Cut into 2-inch squares.

Makes 12 to 16 pieces.

Each of 16 servings contains about:

177 calories; 2 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 2 grams fat; 37 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams protein; 0.57 gram fiber.

RAISIN-BRAN MUFFINS

Oil, optional

2 cups oat or wheat bran

2 cups flour

3/4 cup raisins

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/3 cup molasses or prune puree

1/3 cup honey

1 cup nonfat milk

1 cup low-fat buttermilk

Buy yourself a gem-sized muffin pan or two and whip up a batch of these wonderfully sweet treats. They’re easy to pass out on Halloween if you line the muffin pans with colored baking papers.

Lightly oil gem-sized muffin pans or line with baking papers.

Combine bran, flour, raisins and baking soda in large bowl.

Combine molasses, honey, milk and buttermilk in separate bowl. Stir wet ingredients into dry, then immediately spoon into muffin tins.

Bake at 350 degrees until tops are springy to touch, 12 to 18 minutes. Remove muffins from pans and let cool on wire racks.

Makes 36 gem muffins.

Each muffin serving contains about:

68 calories; 13 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 1 gram fat; 16 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams protein; 0.18 gram fiber.

POPCORN BALLS

1/2 cup honey

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 cups air-popped popcorn

Let the kids join you in making these tasty popcorn balls. They can be wrapped in squares of plastic wrap for sharing at school.

Combine honey, maple syrup and water in saucepan. Bring to boil over medium-high heat. Cook until mixture becomes thick (syrup should form ball when you drop 1/4 teaspoon into glass of very cold water). Stir in vanilla, then pour syrup over popcorn in bowl.

Lightly oil hands and toss popcorn to coat thoroughly with syrup. Form into 12 balls. Cool. Wrap in squares of plastic wrap to store.

Makes 12 balls.

Each ball contains about:

63 calories; 1 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 0 fat; 16 grams carbohydrates; 0 protein; 0.07 gram fiber.